Apr 24, 2024
Awesome guided tour to Sapanca - Professional crew with English speaking guide. They guided us to all the various stops on the way to the lake. The bus was very comfortable with AC. The zoo was very well manicured with great landscaping anr animals of all types. The telefrik was also awesome. Amazing views of Sapanca lake. Lunch was also decent. Overall great value for the money. Highly recommend it.
Review provided by Viator
Apr 10, 2024
Awesome trip - My sister and I took this trip. The trip was well organized, many stops and activities to do. Our guide Apo and the driver Nedim did an excellent job. Apo was very informative and Nedim driving was impeccable. Will definitely recommend this tour to our friends
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Apr 10, 2024
Awesome Trip - The trip was well organized, many stops and activities to do. Our guide Apo and the driver Nedim did an excellent job. Apo was very informative and Nedim driving was impeccable. Will definitely recommend this tour to our friends
Review provided by Viator
Nov 5, 2023
Wonderful experience - What a wonderful experience, so thankful to our very kind tour guide made our day more special. We are free to do whatever we want. The meal is so sumptous! Highly recommended
Review provided by Viator
Sep 7, 2023
Very good - It was a great experience last Thursday!
Very good team, Mr Apo was very professional and enthusiastic!
In short, it was a trip full of positive energy ☀️
thank you for everything
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Aug 24, 2023
Excellent would book again! - We really enjoyed the safari and the cable cars. Watching the lions close up was amazing too however you dont get enough time for this activity due to busy schedule for the day.
When you book this you will be travelling with other people on a coach which means you have to wait for everyone until they have got back to the meeting point. Apart from this the whole day was fantastic!
Review provided by Viator
Jul 17, 2024
Our Travel Guide APO - I had the opportunity to travel with nehir travel in Turkey. in our trip to sapanca and masukiya lake our travel guide named APO was with us. he had arranged the trip in an excellent manner. he knows english' arabic' Turkish and some other languages. his explanation in english was very good. we didnt havd any problem in understanding his english. he was extremely caring and nice to all the tourists. he guided them to the best of his knowledge. everyone in the vain kept asking him about the tourists cites and he tried to give satisfactory answers to all. he was very cooperative. I wish him success in future and would love to travel with him again
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Sep 16, 2024
Rude Ignorant Guide Guaranteed Disappointment - This one day experience started very well being picked up exactly on time. As one of the first to join coach spent nearly 2 hrs around istanbul collecting other tourists. Eventually all accounted for our guide Apo whose grasp of English was only borderline briefed us on the tour agenda and scamming beggars we would encounter at various stops. In addition taken pictures of all our ID supposedly for medical reasons associated with hospital. This guide APO who by the way unprofessionally dressed did not even at the end demonstrate that data he had collected was destroyed!! I expect numerous passengers will be having scammers contacting them or using their data What guide comes to work in gangster style clothes with baseball cap turned around and forcing the coach passengers to listen to his so called nonsense DJ style music. First disaster was this was meant to be max 15 people but more than 25! First stop a poor excuse for a zoo which entrance fees are required. This was meant to be 40 minutes but he extended to 1 hour 20 mins. BTW separate fees payable Having said not interested he took great offence and further accused me of telling other tourists as well. More than half NOT interested in the zoo!! Very very aggressive and had to tell him off. Few wanted to go to the zoo. Next stop after 1 hours drive again was a shop, obviously NOT forced to purchase anything but clearly guide getting some form of commission. Then onto the zip line activity. Whilst queuing up Apo the guide demanded money from me and informed him that I'm going to pay by card!! Apo the guide really behaving as a thug!! Destroyed the whole experience and only given max 20 minutes to take in the vista. The off to lunch! OMG lunch was so poor mixed grill ice cold, salad dry and choice of free beverages limited. To add insult to injury portions were tiny!. The worst Turkish lunch in whole of Turkey! To the cable car which again you have to pay additional fees and a race to get to the top and enjoy the vista. Then again a drop off at a honey shop? This was followed by additional optional activities in the mountains of buggy riding or even tandem parasailing. At about 6.45pm went to Lake sapanca where you can go on pedal boats. Finished at the lake 7.30pm in the dark. Coach drive back to istanbul a nightmare. Apo the great unprofessional guide talking and distracting the driver through the journey back to Istanbul. Got off at the first stop in Istanbul as clearly a risk to LIFE. Finished approx 9.30pm so min 13hrs of life wasted on useless tour. Well done to Apo for destroying the day. I addition no talk given about vistas or Turkey or Istanbul during the drive out. Avoid this guide, it's more than 15 as stated and future possibilities of scams with the unsolicited use of photo ID. WELL DONE APO DESTROYING THE WHOLE DAY!
Review provided by Viator
Aug 27, 2024
A scam to extort money - This tour is just a scam. They willonly stop at places to make you buy stuff (they get a commission out of how much you buy).
I was with a baby and was obliged to get off the bus so impolitely to be obliged to pay a ticket for the zoo or stay in the middle of nowhere until the bus opens in an hour. The weather was hot and it didn't make sense to stay on the road. We had to buy a ticket for 3 people to the zoo. It was midday: All the animals were sleeping!
We then stopped at a shop called Safranbolu. This shop is also a scam. We bought a lot and none of the stuff we bought where genuine: lokum, coffee and beauty products...None!
Never tour with this company. Not recommended at all.
Review provided by Viator
Jul 16, 2024
Nothing but a lengthy tourist trap - An activity is not "optional" if it is effectively the only thing available other than waiting around! This tour was basically a long (13 hour) and unsatisfying round trip between Sapanca Lake and Istanbul with all the stops being solely at restricted areas with specific paid activities and nothing else available. Coupling this with an unenthusiastic guide that just phones it in, makes for an abysmal experience.
TL;DR: Avoid and don't waste a day on this.
The first stop was at a zoo, which is not mentioned at all in the description of this tour but is instead part of a similar but more expensive tour that we specifically avoided as we did not want to go to a zoo. This just goes to show that you might as well always pick the cheapest option since you'll end up in the same places anyway! So, after 90 minutes of cooling our heels, off to the next stop.
Next was an "optional" zip line experience in Mahmudiye which has nothing else except a cafe with inflated 'tourist' prices and a pitiful excuse of a waterfall. Did I mention that the only shade to be had in scorching June weather was at said cafe, and you guessed it you can't use it without being an unwilling customer.
Where to next? Ah yes, a store selling Turkish delights, honey, candles and soaps etc. no different to what you find in many stores in Istanbul...pointless!
Next stop? Sapanca Telefrik...see above Mahmudiye stop but replace zip line with cable car!
Then, it's Masukiye Selale, where the 'highlight' is the ATV tour but at least here you have some actual alternatives/options, maybe things are looking ahead of the final stop...
Sapanca Lake, finally the centrepiece, but guess what the location you are taken to is a waterfront overtaken by extortionate cafes and cycle-boat operator and you're left with 45 minutes, but that's OK it's not like you can walk along the waterfront...might as well just hang it all and go back to Istanbul.
It's sad to say but the only bright spot was actually the bus driver who was kind enough to drop us off closer to our stay after a long and unsatisfying day.
Review provided by Viator